EVENT

Innovations to Tackle Crises in Democracy: Online Releasing Event of Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook on May 27

Isabel Hou is a seasoned attorney focusing on technological  innovation and intellectual property law and has served as a legal  counsel for various government programs, prestigious companies, and NGOs  in Taiwan since 2000. Isabel became a solo practitioner after leaving  Lee and Li, attorneys-at-law, however, collaborates with fellow lawyers  and professionals from various backgrounds on a project basis regularly  ever since.

She is currently the Taiwan AI Academy Secretary General and is  leading the AI Assembly project. Isabel served as a committee member of  Taiwan’s Open Parliament Multi-stakeholder Forum from 2019-2022.

Matt Stempeck (he / him) is a writer, researcher, technologist, and activist. He’s been building the field of what we call civic technology since 2005. Matt’s experience spans tiny non-profits, big tech platforms, academia, journalism, and history-shaping campaigns. Matt curates the Civic Tech Field Guide, the most comprehensive collection of democracy tech projects in the world. And he was Technologist in Residence at Cornell Tech where he organized the Siegel PiTech Impact Fellowship, embedding highly technical PhD students with public interest organizations across sectors. Matt served as Director of Civic Technology at Microsoft in New York City, establishing strategic partnerships and re-orienting the company’s public sector efforts for the participatory era. Education-wise, Matt became / earned a Master of Science at the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media. While at the Media Lab, he quantified global media attention to stories like Trayvon Martin’s, designed a peer-to-peer humanitarian aid marketplace, and built LazyTruth, an award-winning product to fight misinformation online way back in 2013. Matt also holds a Bachelor of Arts with high honors from the University of Maryland College Park, where he wrote his undergraduate thesis on the disruption participatory media brought to political journalism. Originally from Boston, Matt’s now based in Lisbon, Portugal and works on engagement projects with a creative collective appropriately known as the Bad Idea Factory.

Dr. Pimrapaat Dusadeeisariyakul currently serves as a Programme Manager, Thailand Office of the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. As part of her social innovation projects, she co-found Cofact Thailand in 2019 together with other well-established organizations, to combating misinformation through technology and promoting media and digital literary. She has developed SUPERMIL card game with Thai Media Fund in the efforts to educate the public on the importance of critical thinking and digital literacy by encouraging people to question the information they encounter and use reliable sources to verify it.

Dr. Pimrapaat obtained her Doctorate degree in Political Science from the University of Aberdeen

Sonja Fischbauer is an expert in organizational development and community strategy. She works at the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, where she has coordinated initiatives like Code for Germany and previously led the Jugend hackt program. In a volunteer capacity, she serves as the President of the Board of Wikimedia Austria, the local chapter supporting the volunteers behind Wikipedia and related projects. Sonja studied archaeology and worked for six years in excavations and museum education before shifting her focus to the present day, at the intersection of technology, politics, and society.

Photo credit: Jason Krüger for Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sung-eun Lim is Deputy Head of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) Korea office, where she leads programs on digital transformation and smart cities in South Korea. She is passionate about building sustainable, people-centered cities and works to strengthen civic engagement in shaping inclusive urban futures. She studied European Law and International Development Cooperation.

Tiff Lin is a democratic educator and founded the Dao Dao Learning Community which is a civic tech project in 2020. She has been contributing to the work of g0v jothon from 2022 to 2024 and devoted to g0v Sch001 to promote digital citizenship education. Tiff is dedicated to promoting the experience and technology of g0v to the youth generation by organizing 2 grants programs, 70+ online/offline courses, and 2 camps, as well as cooperating with 6 schools and nurturing teachers to promote digital civic education further. Besides, Tiff is one of the key editors of the Civic Tech Project & Community Handbook.

Ya-wei serves as the Program Manager of FNF Global Innovation Hub, and  her work in the Hub focuses on innovation for democracy. She enjoys  exploring how people can use technology and innovation to foster  democracy, freedom, and human rights. For example, she initiates the  Innovation for Democracy Café and manages the Hub’s collaboration with  its partner organizations on projects about open source, digital  democracy, civic tech, and youth participation. Before joining FNF, she  has worked for democracy and digital rights NGOs and political party.  She holds a master degree in International Relations from National Taiwan University.